1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for processing photographic silver halide photosensitive material which is often abbreviated as photosensitive material, hereinafter, more particularly, to such a processing method adapted for rapid processing and ensuring ease of handling. It also relates to a fixer used in the method.
2. Prior Art
The current developing process of photographic silver halide photosensitive material is advancing toward rapid processing by automatic processors for further improvements in operating efficiency. In parallel with such advances, there are increasing demands for improving the working environment and facilitating the maintenance of processor accessories.
For example, conventional acidic hardening fixer solutions are used as running equilibrium solutions at pH 4.3 to 4.90 and thus inevitably give off sulfurous acid and acetic acid gases. These gases detrimentally affect the working environment and can cause corrosion of automatic processor accessories, inviting a failure.
The fixer can be increased in pH by increasing the film hardness of photosensitive material and allowing the aluminum salt hardener to be removed from the fixer. One such fixer is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai (JP-A) No. 168741/1991. These fixers, however, are not devoid of the odor problem because although generation of sulfurous acid and acetic acid gases is fairly suppressed, more amounts of ammonia gas can generate.
Anmonia gas is generated primarily from the fixer itself and partially from a fraction of the developer carried over by the photosensitive material. In particular, the rapid processing uses ammonium thiosulfate as the fixing agent, which forms a main origin from which ammonia generates. Thus it is difficult to avoid ammonia generation in rapid processing. The ammonia gas not only raises an odor problem, but is also reactive with sulfurous acid gas in air, depositing white crystals of ammonium sulfate within the processor, which can cause failure.
As previously mentioned, increasing the pH of fixer results in increased water contents of photosensitive material after water washing which significantly affect drying efficiency. Then the fixer pH increase is undesirable particularly for rapid processing.
There is a need for a processing method adapted for rapid processing which can eliminate an odor problem and facilitate the maintenance of the processor.